You can participate from anywhere in the world, on your schedule, anonymously.

Join me March 22nd at LoveFest for a workshop and book signing. It's free and part of Virginia Festival of the Book!

Join me at CatalystCon March 27-29!
Use code RACHEL for $10 off registration.
I'm teaching Erotica 101 & Sex Writing 101, am on the opening keynote panel, and am moderating Sharing Your Sex Life
on the Page and the Stage

I'm beyond excited for the release of Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica!
Want a FREE copy? I'm giving away 100 of them to U.S. Amazon reviewers.Click here for details and to sign up; get it before it's in stores!

Hungry for More: Romantic Fantasies for Women - just published! With stories by Tiffany Reisz, Greta Christina, D.L. King and more. 21 fantasies, from "Kitchen Slut" to a cougar to Craigslist sex to BDSM to bukkake to watching two men get it on, and more!

Saturday, February 02, 2013

A new month, a new BOGO (buy one, get one free) offer, this time for pre-orders of Twice the Pleasure: Bisexual Women's Erotica, which will be out in March and which I'm very excited about! It's my first bisexual erotica collection, and I hope has a little something for everyone. You can pre-order it for (as of today) $10.20 on Amazon and $9.99 on Bn.com . Yes, Kindle and Nook versions will be coming soon, but probably the links won't be up in time for this promotion (that is completely out of my control). So, if you are in the U.S. and pre-order it by February 28th for at 11:59 pm EST, you get your pick of the following of my books, free and autographed (to you or whoever you want): Anything for You, Best Bondage Erotica 2011, Best Bondage Erotica 2012, Best Bondage Erotica 2013, Best Sex Writing 2008, Best Sex Writing 2009, Best Sex Writing 2010, Best Sex Writing 2012, Bottoms Up, Caught Looking, Cheeky Spanking Stories, Do Not Disturb, Fast Girls, Going Down, Gotta Have It, He's on Top, Hide and Seek, Instruments of Pleasure: Sex Toy Erotica (ebook only), Irresistible, The Mile High Club, Obsessed, Only You, Orgasmic, Passion, Peep Show, Please, Ma'am, Please, Sir, Rubber Sex, She's on Top, Smooth, Spanked, Suite Encounters, Surrender, Tasting Her, Tasting Him, Women in Lust, Yes, Ma'am, Yes, Sir. Forward your Bn.com or Amazon.com receipt to biwomenantho at gmail.com with "BOGO" in the subject line and which book you want, your name and address (and if you want the book signed to someone else, their name). And if you want to do a tiny bit of good book karma, please Twice the Pleasure on Amazon (new copy coming soon!). For that you have my immense gratitude! No, I don't have the secret code to Amazon's algorithms, but I know the more likes you have, the better your book's chances of reaching a wider audience. I'm happy to like your book in return, just email me at biwomenantho at gmail.com - thanks!

Woody Allen once famously said, “Bisexuality immediately doubles your chances for a date on Saturday night.” As a bisexual woman, I can attest that this is not necessarily true. Bisexuality is more than just a math equation and cannot be so easily categorized or summarized. Identifying as bi, or being attracted to or engaging in sex with a variety of genders, or whatever version of something approximating those states of being , is the theme of this anthology, and in many ways, the term is actually a lot broader than that dual opportunity. This is not a book about choosing either/or, male or female, or simply one of each. It’s not about narrowing gender down to one size fits all, but about expanding our options, to a both/and approach to how we view and cultivate our sexuality. It’s a welcoming, inclusive definition that welcomes all comers—pun fully intended.

I wanted this book, while fictional and focused on the erotic aspects of bisexual women’s lives, to explore as wide a swatch of “bisexual” as possible. That means that some of the best stories here don’t mention the word bisexual at all; they don’t have to, because their bi angle, their queerness, is embedded—and bedded—in the story. The characters are living it, rather than identifying with it; the sexual exploration and attraction, the experience and movement, are more important than what anyone wants to call it.

The large majority of the submissions I received for this book were about women having sex with women, which makes sense in the context of a culture that still privileges heterosexual identity over any other kind. Even in an era of so-called lesbian and bisexual chic, there’s still plenty of discomfort with the fluidity with which many women view their sexuality. Shifting away from a purely heterosexual mindset forces women to grapple with the ways we differ from mainstream society, even one that is becoming much more open and knowledgeable about the varieties of queer life. The first time we dare to dip our toes—or other body parts—into the world of sex with other women is often momentous. Many of us will find the character of Laura, in Nicole Wolfe’s opening story, “1 Percent Adaptable,” familiar. Laura at first protests Marie’s advances, warning her that she’s not gay, not bi, until she listens to her body and follows its yearnings. “Laura was shocked that the kiss had surprised her, considering what had just happened between her legs. She let her lips caress Marie’s. She dared to let her tongue out to play. She risked letting her hands tickle Marie’s hips and backside,” Wolfe writes.

But I didn’t want this to simply be a first-time bi-curious tentative collection, but a robust one exploring the intimacy of life as a woman interested in men and women. That’s why I wanted stories
that asked questions like the ones in Jacqueline Applebee’s closing tale, “What I Want, What I Need:" “I’d been out as a lesbian since I was twenty-three. Why was I suddenly spending time with a straight man? Why was I enjoying it so much? Had I really been a lesbian at all, or had I been lying to myself for the past twenty years?”

There are girlfriends and wives, husbands and boyfriends, first dates, threesomes and much more here. There’s daring and adventure, women taking risks by stepping outside their comfort zones, whether it’s by surrendering to a bodyguard in “The State" by Tahira Iqbal or confronting “The Wife” of a male lover in Kay Jaybee’s story, only to be confronted right back. The women you’ll read about are attracted to strong women like “The Robber Girl” in Lori Selke’s story, and men who surprise them with their sensitivity, as in my story, “A Little Fun.” There’s also kink, if that’s what you’re looking for. In Cheryl B.’s “The Break,” spanking becomes a way for two exes to reconnect and revive the passion between them, while Sinclair Sexsmith takes us inside a gay bar and then home with a boy her protagonist has met there, one who may or may not know her true gender, in “Right-Red Flagging.” The protagonist of “Seduction Dance” is under the watchful eye of her master when she finds a new female plaything for her to command and seduce. Gender is played with, fucked with, and grappled with as well in Giselle Renarde’s “Glitter in the Gutter,” in which the female partner of a male cross-dresser encourages his interest when he fears he’s crossed a line and doesn’t want to live in the new, judgmental world he’s stepped into. Aimee Pearl writes in “Meeting at the Hole in the Wall, “Chivalry is dead, and I want to writhe naked on its grave.”

These are celebratory, sexy stories, but, all apologies to Mr. Allen, they are more complex than a view of bisexuality simply as “twice as much” to offer. I like to think of them as both/and stories that, collectively, offer a look at the ways bisexuality, queerness and lesbianism affect us while recognizing that there’s no monolithic typical bisexual. We are multifaceted, full of desires that can’t be contained in a single, simplistic category. We are hungry, horny, mischievous, naughty, provocative and, yes, curious. We may think we know what we want, only to keep on surprising ourselves just when we think we have it all figured out. We are open to a wide range of sexual possibilities, whether they exist in our heads or beyond.

I hope you’ll enjoy the twenty-two stories presented here, and that they serve as erotic catalysts, no matter how you identify.